" by
George Bellows, depicting the Lower East Side as it was in the early 20th century , a symbol of the neighborhood's Jewish cultural history
Immigrant neighborhood One of the oldest neighborhoods of the city, the Lower East Side has long been a lower-class
worker neighborhood and often a poor and ethnically diverse section of New York. As well as
Irish,
Italians,
Poles,
Ukrainians,
Romanians and other ethnic groups, it once had a sizeable
German population and was known as
Little Germany (Kleindeutschland). Today it is a predominantly
Puerto Rican and
Dominican community, and in the process of
gentrification (as documented by the portraits of its residents in the Clinton+Rivington chapter of The Corners Project.) Since the immigration waves from Eastern Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century, the Lower East Side became known as having been a center of
Jewish immigrant culture. In her 2000 book
Lower East Side Memories: A Jewish Place in America,
Hasia Diner explains that the Lower East Side is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings for Ashkenazi American Jewish culture. Vestiges of the area's Jewish heritage exist in shops on
Hester and
Essex Streets, and on
Grand Street near Allen Street. An Orthodox Jewish community is based in the area, operating
yeshiva day schools and a
mikvah. A few
Judaica shops can be found along Essex Street, as are a few
Jewish scribes and variety stores. Some kosher delis and bakeries, as well as a few "
kosher style" delis, including the famous
Katz's Deli, are located in the neighborhood. Second Avenue on the Lower East Side was home to many
Yiddish theatre productions in the
Yiddish Theater District during the early part of the 20th century, and Second Avenue came to be known as “Yiddish Broadway”, even though most of the theaters are now gone. Songwriter
Irving Berlin, actor
John Garfield, and singer
Eddie Cantor grew up here. Since the mid-20th century, the area has been settled primarily by immigrants, primarily from
Latin America, especially Central America and Puerto Rico. They have established their own groceries and shops, marketing goods from their culture and cuisine.
Bodegas have replaced Jewish shops, and there are mostly
Roman Catholics. In what is now the
East Village, earlier populations of Poles and Ukrainians have moved on and been largely supplanted by newer immigrants. The immigration of numerous Japanese people over the last fifteen years or so has led to the proliferation of Japanese restaurants and specialty food markets. There is also a notable population of
Bangladeshis and other immigrants from
Muslim countries, many of whom are congregants of the small Madina Masjid, a
mosque on
First Avenue and 11th Street. The neighborhood still has many historic synagogues, such as the
Bialystoker Synagogue,
Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, the
Eldridge Street Synagogue,
Kehila Kedosha Janina (the only Greek synagogue in the Western Hemisphere), the
Angel Orensanz Center (the fourth
oldest synagogue building in the United States), and various smaller synagogues along East Broadway. Another landmark, the
First Roumanian-American congregation (the Rivington Street Synagogue), partially collapsed in 2006 and was subsequently demolished. In addition, there is a major
Hare Krishna temple and several
Buddhist houses of worship.
Chinese residents have also been moving into Lower East Side, and since the late 20th century, they have comprised a large immigrant group in the area. The part of the neighborhood south of
Delancey Street and west of
Allen Street has, in large measure, become part of
Chinatown.
Grand Street is one of the major business and shopping streets of Chinatown. Also contained within the neighborhood are strips of
lighting and restaurant supply shops on the Bowery.
Jewish neighborhood While the Lower East Side has been a place of successive immigrant populations, many American Jews relate to the neighborhood in a strong manner, and
Chinatown holds a special place in the imagination of Chinese Americans, In the late 20th century, Jewish communities have worked to preserve a number of buildings historically associated with the Jewish immigrant community. Notable sites include: •
The Educational Alliance Settlement house – 175 East Broadway •
Henry Street Settlement – 263–267 Henry Street and 466 Grand Street •
University Settlement House – 184 Eldridge Street •
Katz's Deli – 205 East Houston Street •
Guss' Pickles – 87 Orchard Street •
Kossar's Bialys – 367 Grand Street •
Gertel's Bake Shop – formerly at 53 Hester Street from 1914 until it closed in 2007 •
Knickerbocker Village – 10 Monroe Street •
Streit's Matzo Co. – 150 Rivington Street •
Yonah Schimmel's Knish Bakery – 137 East Houston Street • Mendel Goldberg Fabrics, since 1890 – 72 Hester Street • Harris Levy Fine Linens, since 1894 – 98 Forsyth Street •
Russ & Daughters – 179 East Houston Street • Schapiro's Kosher Wine – Essex Street Market •
Forward Building – 173-175 East Broadway •
Jarmulowsky Bank Building – 54-58 Canal Street, 5-9 Orchard Street
Synagogues include: •
Adath Jeshurun of Jassy Synagogue – 58-60 Rivington Street •
Bialystoker Synagogue – 7–11 Willet Street, originally built in the
Greek Revival style for the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church in 1826, and acquired in 1905 for the Orthodox Jewish congregation. •
Beth Hamedrash Hagadol – 60–64 Norfolk Street •
Eldridge Street Synagogue – 12 Eldridge Street •
Kehila Kedosha Janina – 280 Broome Street •
Angel Orensanz Center – the fourth-
oldest synagogue building in the United States •
Congregation Chasam Sopher – 10 Clinton Street • Congregation Chevra Kadisha Anshe Sochaczew – 121 Ludlow Street •
Meseritz Synagogue – 415 East 6th Street •
Podhajcer Shul – 108 East First Street •
Stanton Street Synagogue – 180 Stanton Street •
Boyaner kloiz at 247 East Broadway, opened in 1928 by the
Boyaner Rebbe of New York Little Fuzhou, Chinatown in the
Chinatown section of the Lower East Side has the highest concentration of Chinese people in the
Western Hemisphere.
Little Fuzhou (), or
Fuzhou Town () is a neighborhood within the eastern sliver of
Chinatown, in the
Two Bridges and Lower East Side areas of Manhattan. Starting in the 1980s and by the 1990s, the neighborhood became a prime destination for
immigrants from Fuzhou, Fujian, China. Manhattan's Little Fuzhou is centered on
East Broadway. However, since the 2000s,
Chinatown, Brooklyn became New York City's new primary destination for Fuzhou immigrants, resulting in a second Little Fuzhou that has far surpassed the original as the Fuzhou cultural center of the
New York metropolitan area, and is still rapidly growing in contrast to Manhattan's Little Fuzhou that is shrinking under
gentrification. Since the 2010s, the Fuzhou immigrant population and businesses have been declining throughout the whole eastern portion of Manhattan's Chinatown due to gentrification. There is a rapidly increasing influx of high-income, often non-Chinese,
professionals moving into this area, including high-end
hipster-owned businesses.
Art in 2010 The neighborhood has become home to numerous
contemporary art galleries. One of the first was
ABC No Rio. Begun by a group of
Colab no wave artists (some living on
Ludlow Street), ABC No Rio opened an outsider gallery space that invited community participation and encouraged the widespread production of art. Taking an activist approach to art that grew out of The Real Estate Show (the take over of an abandoned building by artists to open an outsider gallery only to have it chained closed by the police) ABC No Rio kept its sense of
activism, community, and outsiderness. The product of this open, expansive approach to art was a space for creating new works that did not have links to the art market place and that were able to explore new artistic possibilities. Other outsider galleries sprung up throughout the Lower East Side and East Village—some 200 at the height of the scene in the 1980s, including the
124 Ridge Street Gallery among others. In December 2007, the
New Museum relocated to a brand-new, critically acclaimed building on Bowery at Prince. A growing number of galleries are opening in the Bowery neighborhood to be in close proximity to the museum. The
Museum of Reclaimed Urban Space, which opened in 2012, exhibits photography featuring the neighborhood in addition to chronicling its history of activism. Social service agencies like
Henry Street Settlement and
Educational Alliance have visual and performing arts programs, the former at
Abrons Arts Center, a home for contemporary interdisciplinary arts. The neighborhood is also home to several graffiti artists, such as
Chico and
Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Nightlife and live music As the neighborhood has gentrified and become safer at night, it has transformed into a popular late-night destination. Orchard,
Ludlow and Essex between Rivington Street and
Stanton Street have become especially packed at night, and the resulting noise is a cause of tension between bar owners and longtime residents. LES is a nightlife hub, with one of the densest concentrations of bars in Manhattan, and a four block area bounded by Allen Street, Houston Street, Delancey Street and Essex Street has been nicknamed "Hell Square" due to the late night crowds, party energy, and rowdy noise. Furthermore, as gentrification continues, many established landmarks and venues have been lost. The Lower East Side is also home to many live music venues. Punk bands played at
C-Squat and
alternative rock bands play at
Bowery Ballroom on
Delancey Street and
Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street. Punk bands play at Otto's Shrunken Head and R-Bar. Punk and alternative bands play at
Bowery Electric just north of the old
CBGB's location. There are also bars that offer performance space, such as Pianos on
Ludlow Street and
Arlene's Grocery on Stanton Street. The Lower East Side is the location of
the Slipper Room, a burlesque, variety and vaudeville theatre on Orchard and Stanton.
Lady Gaga,
Leonard Cohen and
U2 have all appeared there, while popular downtown performers—including Dirty Martini, Murray Hill, and Matt Fraser—often appear. Variety shows are regularly hosted by comedians James Habacker,
Bradford Scobie, Matthew Holtzclaw, and
Matt Roper, under the guise of various characters. The Lower East Side has also been mentioned in several songs, such as "Les" by Childish Gambino and "L.E.S Artistes" by Santigold. ==Police and crime==